SOC2069
Researching
Social Life 1
Quantitative data and descriptive statistics
Measurement scales
- A variable is called quantitative when the measurement scale has numerical values that represent different magnitudes of the variable
- A variable is called categorical when the measurement scale is a set of categories
- For categorical variables, distinct categories differ in quality, not in numerical magnitude. For this reason, categorical variables are often called qualitative (but we won’t call them as such, to avoid confusion with the type of qualitative data we covered in the first half of the module)
Measurement scales
Measurement scales
The position of ordinal scales on the quantitative–qualitative classification is fuzzy. Because their scale is a set of categories, they are often analyzed using the same methods as nominal scales. But in many respects, ordinal scales more closely resemble interval scales. They possess an important quantitative feature: each level has a greater or smaller magnitude than another level
Measurement scales
A variable’s values are discrete if its possible values form a set of separate numbers, such as (0, 1, 2, 3, . . . ).
They are continuous if it can take an infinite continuum of possible real number values.
Measurement scales
Where do variables come from?
- Data collection: Observation, interviewing, experiments…
- The data we use in this module comes from Wave 8 of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society) Main Survey:
